...posted an ad on Craigslist, and here, offering to trade a working 026 for a broken 044. That didn't bear fruit, however I got a call from a guy with a dead 066 collecting dust in his garage, wanted it gone, didn't need no stinkin' 026. A quick peek, an absurd low-ball offer, and an 066 project saw it is. I got it home and dusted off the cover wondering if the word Magnum might be hiding somewhere, and...it is! This thing is huge, way too big for a schmuck home-owner like me. Then again, maybe I do need an 066 magnum. 
Besides, the 038 Super has been bullying the smaller saws for way too long, needs a little slapping around.
It's pretty old and well used, but the basic set-up is: no decomp valve, Aluminium flywheel with single key, dual-port muffler, 3/4-wrap bar, dual dawgs, oversized pnw side cover, 32"/063/404 bar. It's missing much of the paint from the flywheel cover, and all of the paint is off the bar.
Most of the following is a chronicle of getting the saw working, questions have a :msp_confused: after them to make it easier to find. If it's too long, skip to the bottom, questions are summarized. OTOH, I love feedback and advice.
The first thing I noticed was that the recoil spring was not tight enough, wouldn't let the rope retract fully, and said rope was only 12" long. New rope, rewound the spring, all is well.
The next thing was, the safety interlock on the handle stays down, and the throttle lock is not working. This makes starting tough, as although it can be choked, the throttle can't easily be held open while pulling. Dismantled the handle, the interlock spring had popped out of place, more importantly one of the tabs on the starter switch shaft had broken off. I replaced this, got a dirty look when I asked if they had it in red, and now the switch behaves like the all Stihls I've come to know and love.
The PO told me it needed a new coil, had no spark, he couldn't figure out what was wrong with it, and didn't care. He had the wrong plug, and the little coil spring inside the plug boot had pulled out of the coil wire. I bought the right plug, fixed the little spring...the coil is not dead. I'd put a big smiley here, but the administrator is a bit of an emoticop.
He had the good grace to drain all the fluids before storage, this is good. It looks like the impulse, intake boot, fuel line and tank vent are all in really nice shape. More good news.
Pulled the muffler, piston looks good, no melting no burn marks, no transfer. I looked through the plug hole, and I can see a chip on the top edge of the exhaust port. It looks about 0.150" in diameter. This is probably not the best, but there are no rough edges, and my bet is it probably isn't going to hurt performance. I'd love opinions on this. :msp_confused:
I put in a little fuel and pulled it over a few times, checked compression...150psi! Sweet!!! I tried to fire it up, and it initially started, but was blowing a tonne of blue smoke, odd for a relatively fresh 50:1 mix...BANG, dead. Nasty back-fire. Thanks to AS, I remember reading about this being usually a sign that the flywheel key has sheared. One new Woodruff key later, it fires right up, has excellent throttle response, even 4-strokes at WOT. Having a good day so far, but thinking bad mojo, there's always a carb problem, why isn't there this time?
Next, I noticed the chain is not sitting still at idle. Pulled the clutch cover off expecting a badly worn clutch, but it's OK (ish). This thing's been run pretty hard though, the brake cover is melted and black around the clutch drum, and it looks like it's thrown a chain at least once. There's a hole in the brake cover, no chain catcher, no rubber guard strip in the clutch cover, and the tabs for holding the rubber guard on are all broken off. Behind the clutch cover it's pretty severely worn, most of the paint is off the crankcase, looks like corrosion, the magnesium is kind of pitted looking. I don't think it's ever been cleaned, and due to the hole in the cover, it's packed with sawdust/oil/grime.
Removing the clutch drum was surprisingly difficult, turned out the plastic cage for the drum bearing had melted, and all of the bearings had rotated off-axis a little, making the drum a little sticky on the crankshaft. Once I got that off, getting the clutch off was a bugger. I don't have an impact gun, so I pulled the plug, shoved in the original starter rope making sure I got it up against the cylinder wall in a loop and had the piston above the exhaust port, then used a 15" crescent wrench to "ease" it off (mmm yes reverse threaded). The clutch springs are very loose, though the holes on each shoe aren't that badly worn. I've got new clutch springs and a new drum bearing on order now. I think there are two versions of clutch, one uses springs with 6-coils, the other one only 5. This one is the 5-coil variety.
When I went to refit the brake band I noticed it had a nasty thin/weak spot, so I'll get another one of those along with a new brake cover.
The next thing I noticed is it's leaking oil out of the oil-line hole like Roberto Luongo lets pucks by at a Stanley cup final :bang:. One exhaustive clean-up on the oil pump later, and a new oil line and upper sealing ring it is. I'm not sure how well this will work, as there's no longer any paint on the ID of the oil line hole. I expect an older saw to leak a little bar oil, but this is excessive. Does anybody use rtv or something similar to seal up the oil hole on these old saws? :msp_confused:
And that brings me to today...waiting for parts. They won't be in until the new year, as my supplier is closed up for Christmas. In fairness, she asked if it was OK with me to wait. Now that I'm twiddling my thumbs...
1. The chip along the top of the exhaust port is very hard to photograph, but it's like a half-moon of about 0.150" diameter, and it's roughly in the centre of the top edge of the port. My guess is this might get pretty hot as it's the first point where exhaust begins to flow out of the port. Should I go to the trouble of pulling the jug and raising the whole exhaust port, or just let the sleeping dog lie?
2. Any advice on sealing around the oil line?
3. The bar may be passable, is straight, has lived well. I noticed the bar nose is a little loose, the sides have spread at the tip, and that the bar has split across the other end, at the back of the slot for the bar studs. I just fee-bayed a used 32"/063/404 bar without a nose, figured I'd just buy a new schnoz from the local yokels. See picture. Is the old bar salvageable, or am I just wasting my time cleaning it up? The 066 SM I have says if the depth from the rail to the bottom of the slot is below 0.27", toss it, and I'm getting 0.305" at the shallowest. This is only 0.035" from end of life, how deep is the slot when new?
Besides, the 038 Super has been bullying the smaller saws for way too long, needs a little slapping around.It's pretty old and well used, but the basic set-up is: no decomp valve, Aluminium flywheel with single key, dual-port muffler, 3/4-wrap bar, dual dawgs, oversized pnw side cover, 32"/063/404 bar. It's missing much of the paint from the flywheel cover, and all of the paint is off the bar.
Most of the following is a chronicle of getting the saw working, questions have a :msp_confused: after them to make it easier to find. If it's too long, skip to the bottom, questions are summarized. OTOH, I love feedback and advice.
The first thing I noticed was that the recoil spring was not tight enough, wouldn't let the rope retract fully, and said rope was only 12" long. New rope, rewound the spring, all is well.
The next thing was, the safety interlock on the handle stays down, and the throttle lock is not working. This makes starting tough, as although it can be choked, the throttle can't easily be held open while pulling. Dismantled the handle, the interlock spring had popped out of place, more importantly one of the tabs on the starter switch shaft had broken off. I replaced this, got a dirty look when I asked if they had it in red, and now the switch behaves like the all Stihls I've come to know and love.
The PO told me it needed a new coil, had no spark, he couldn't figure out what was wrong with it, and didn't care. He had the wrong plug, and the little coil spring inside the plug boot had pulled out of the coil wire. I bought the right plug, fixed the little spring...the coil is not dead. I'd put a big smiley here, but the administrator is a bit of an emoticop.
He had the good grace to drain all the fluids before storage, this is good. It looks like the impulse, intake boot, fuel line and tank vent are all in really nice shape. More good news.
Pulled the muffler, piston looks good, no melting no burn marks, no transfer. I looked through the plug hole, and I can see a chip on the top edge of the exhaust port. It looks about 0.150" in diameter. This is probably not the best, but there are no rough edges, and my bet is it probably isn't going to hurt performance. I'd love opinions on this. :msp_confused:
I put in a little fuel and pulled it over a few times, checked compression...150psi! Sweet!!! I tried to fire it up, and it initially started, but was blowing a tonne of blue smoke, odd for a relatively fresh 50:1 mix...BANG, dead. Nasty back-fire. Thanks to AS, I remember reading about this being usually a sign that the flywheel key has sheared. One new Woodruff key later, it fires right up, has excellent throttle response, even 4-strokes at WOT. Having a good day so far, but thinking bad mojo, there's always a carb problem, why isn't there this time?
Next, I noticed the chain is not sitting still at idle. Pulled the clutch cover off expecting a badly worn clutch, but it's OK (ish). This thing's been run pretty hard though, the brake cover is melted and black around the clutch drum, and it looks like it's thrown a chain at least once. There's a hole in the brake cover, no chain catcher, no rubber guard strip in the clutch cover, and the tabs for holding the rubber guard on are all broken off. Behind the clutch cover it's pretty severely worn, most of the paint is off the crankcase, looks like corrosion, the magnesium is kind of pitted looking. I don't think it's ever been cleaned, and due to the hole in the cover, it's packed with sawdust/oil/grime.
Removing the clutch drum was surprisingly difficult, turned out the plastic cage for the drum bearing had melted, and all of the bearings had rotated off-axis a little, making the drum a little sticky on the crankshaft. Once I got that off, getting the clutch off was a bugger. I don't have an impact gun, so I pulled the plug, shoved in the original starter rope making sure I got it up against the cylinder wall in a loop and had the piston above the exhaust port, then used a 15" crescent wrench to "ease" it off (mmm yes reverse threaded). The clutch springs are very loose, though the holes on each shoe aren't that badly worn. I've got new clutch springs and a new drum bearing on order now. I think there are two versions of clutch, one uses springs with 6-coils, the other one only 5. This one is the 5-coil variety.
When I went to refit the brake band I noticed it had a nasty thin/weak spot, so I'll get another one of those along with a new brake cover.
The next thing I noticed is it's leaking oil out of the oil-line hole like Roberto Luongo lets pucks by at a Stanley cup final :bang:. One exhaustive clean-up on the oil pump later, and a new oil line and upper sealing ring it is. I'm not sure how well this will work, as there's no longer any paint on the ID of the oil line hole. I expect an older saw to leak a little bar oil, but this is excessive. Does anybody use rtv or something similar to seal up the oil hole on these old saws? :msp_confused:
And that brings me to today...waiting for parts. They won't be in until the new year, as my supplier is closed up for Christmas. In fairness, she asked if it was OK with me to wait. Now that I'm twiddling my thumbs...
1. The chip along the top of the exhaust port is very hard to photograph, but it's like a half-moon of about 0.150" diameter, and it's roughly in the centre of the top edge of the port. My guess is this might get pretty hot as it's the first point where exhaust begins to flow out of the port. Should I go to the trouble of pulling the jug and raising the whole exhaust port, or just let the sleeping dog lie?
2. Any advice on sealing around the oil line?
3. The bar may be passable, is straight, has lived well. I noticed the bar nose is a little loose, the sides have spread at the tip, and that the bar has split across the other end, at the back of the slot for the bar studs. I just fee-bayed a used 32"/063/404 bar without a nose, figured I'd just buy a new schnoz from the local yokels. See picture. Is the old bar salvageable, or am I just wasting my time cleaning it up? The 066 SM I have says if the depth from the rail to the bottom of the slot is below 0.27", toss it, and I'm getting 0.305" at the shallowest. This is only 0.035" from end of life, how deep is the slot when new?
